Heya! I'm looking for stats/rules for a Cross-Guard Lightsaber hilt are there any in the source books or could you possibly do a homebrew ruling on it but keep it fairly in balanced with the other options available in the core rulebook?

Any answers will be greatly appreciated thanks!

I don't think it's in the books yet...

So let's start by thinking about the weapon qualities such a hilt would have.

I'd say it's Unwieldy, for one.

I'm assuming your player wants to make a lightsaber similar to Kylo Ren's from The Force Awakens. If that's the case, Ren's lightsaber uses a cracked, synthetic lightsaber crystal, presumably the one from Darth Vader's lightsaber, and required The "crossguard" to vent off excess energy. The way I see it a crossguard modification would remove one HP from a basic lightsaber hilt and would only be necessary if the character comes across a flawed crystal, or the crystal becomes flawed if the Jedi attuned to it incorrectly...

I'd have it do (base damage)+1 when used with Parry (Improved). Possibly add a mod that increase this from +1 to +2.

Do you want to model it after the Kylo Ren's or Roblio Darté's?

Do you want to model it after the Kylo Ren's or Roblio Darté's?

Kylo, Definitely Kylo.(doubt the player I have who want's TO have that as his lightsaber knows about Roblio.)

I think Donovan Morningfire homebrewed one on his blog. He has a link in his signature.

I would consider Kylo's lightsabre design cosmetic and thus not needing a specific hilt that grants any additional bonus. I'd have the player use a standard lightsabre and describe the hilt when it activates and call it a day.

It was a cracked crystal coupled with an old hilt design, so you could honebrew a Crystal for it, just take an existing crystal and change a couple of mods on it. For example drop one of the crystal mods for burn maybe.

I wouldn't make too many changes to it.

As for it being a synthetic gen, I haven't seen a source for that.

I would say it adds 1 melee defense 1 threat. That's just the cross guard part. As for the cracked crystal/unstable blade, I would say that it adds +1 damage and as a special feature 3 threat means the weapon shorts out/ over heats and needs 3? rounds to cool down until it can be reactivated.

Just ideas:

• GM can use Threat to reduce damage of an attack by 1 due to the blade constantly shorting, flickering. We never actually see it cut out completely, it just flickers.
• The crossbar hot spots can be used in a threatening manner during attacks, causing a defender problems. Automatic 1 advantage while attacking? Or should it be automatic 1 Threat while attacking the wielder?

In Saga Edition (for whatever that's worth), the crossguard hilt made it easier to Block (i.e. Parry) incoming melee attacks, while making it more difficult to Deflect incoming ranged attacks (Jedi Academy Training Manual, p.53). If you gave a boost die to Parry melee attacks and a setback die to parry ranged attacks, I think that would give you a fairly balanced result.

In Saga Edition (for whatever that's worth), the crossguard hilt made it easier to Block (i.e. Parry) incoming melee attacks, while making it more difficult to Deflect incoming ranged attacks (Jedi Academy Training Manual, p.53). If you gave a boost die to Parry melee attacks and a setback die to parry ranged attacks, I think that would give you a fairly balanced result.

Neither Parry nor Reflect rely upon making a roll, so boost/setback dice ar fairly meaningless for those uses.

You could make it a hilt design only, any crystal can be fitted just like other hilts.

Cross Guard Hilt:

3 HP

500cr

Gain 1 automatic Advantage on Coercion checks

When using Improved Parry add +1 damage

Or

Cross Guard Hilt:

3HP

500cr

Gain 1 automatic Advantage on Coercion checks

Innate Talent (Improved Parry)

From my blog

http://jedimorningfire.blogspot.com/2016/01/additional-lightsaber-hilt-ideas.html

First entry is a crossguard lightsaber, which I treated as a separate hilt design much like FFG treated the Temple Guardian and guard shoto lightsabers in Keeping the Peace. I had the crossguards effectively provide Defense 1 and Vicious 1, and costing 900 credits.

My guess would be that if FFG does create official stats for the crossguard hilt, it'd probably be the Warrior (most likely) or Sentinel sourcebooks.

I'm assuming your player wants to make a lightsaber similar to Kylo Ren's from The Force Awakens. If that's the case, Ren's lightsaber uses a cracked, synthetic lightsaber crystal, presumably the one from Darth Vader's lightsaber, and required The "crossguard" to vent off excess energy. The way I see it a crossguard modification would remove one HP from a basic lightsaber hilt and would only be necessary if the character comes across a flawed crystal, or the crystal becomes flawed if the Jedi attuned to it incorrectly...

While Ren's saber might have needed the crossguard to vent, it's a design that apparently dates back hundreds or thousands of years, as indicated by Ezra finding a properly functioning saber of that design on Malachor in the Rebels season 2 finale.

Note the blades aren't "jagged," like Ren's.

From my blog

http://jedimorningfire.blogspot.com/2016/01/additional-lightsaber-hilt-ideas.html

First entry is a crossguard lightsaber, which I treated as a separate hilt design much like FFG treated the Temple Guardian and guard shoto lightsabers in Keeping the Peace. I had the crossguards effectively provide Defense 1 and Vicious 1, and costing 900 credits.

My guess would be that if FFG does create official stats for the crossguard hilt, it'd probably be the Warrior (most likely) or Sentinel sourcebooks.

Thanks! also thanks to everyone else who offered advice as well

Just ideas:

• GM can use Threat to reduce damage of an attack by 1 due to the blade constantly shorting, flickering. We never actually see it cut out completely, it just flickers.
• The crossbar hot spots can be used in a threatening manner during attacks, causing a defender problems. Automatic 1 advantage while attacking? Or should it be automatic 1 Threat while attacking the wielder?

The flickering blade is more due to the flawed kyber crystal that Kylo Ren uses than the crossguard saber itself.

I took a stab at stating up a flawed kyber crystal (as well as some other types) over on my blog as well. It starts out a bit better than a standard Ilum crystal, but automatically upgrades the difficulty of any attempts to modify the crystal. So one bad roll and oops, no more kyber crystal...

As for the crossbar, that was my justification for Defensive 1 (adds a setback die to attacker's roll as it's harder to get past) and Vicious (it's an extra cutting point, as Kylo demonstrated on Finn).

Nobody thinks it'd be unwieldy? Really?

After all those pre-TFA videos where lots of people demonstrated how a crossguard could hurt the user?

Nobody thinks it'd be unwieldy? Really?

After all those pre-TFA videos where lots of people demonstrated how a crossguard could hurt the user?

Add Despair can cause a base 1/2 damage attack against the wielder?

Nobody thinks it'd be unwieldy? Really?

After all those pre-TFA videos where lots of people demonstrated how a crossguard could hurt the user?

Add Despair can cause a base 1/2 damage attack against the wielder?

I like that. Anyone else?

Nobody thinks it'd be unwieldy? Really?

After all those pre-TFA videos where lots of people demonstrated how a crossguard could hurt the user?

Its not at all.

The chances of someone who knows what they are doing hitting themselves with the crossguard's vents is pretty much none.

First you treat it like a European long sword.

Second as long as you parry low you will not have them pushed into you.

Third there are several ways to take advantage of them in attacks.

Honestly I would allow a person to use 1 triumph or 3 Advantage to score an additional hit with the cross guard light saber.

I think a Lightsaber is inherently dangerous to use as it is, adding small cross guards close to your hands is not that much riskier. The risk from a double ended Saber seems to come from moving one blade to parry and accidentally slicing your own leg off with the other when you do that. A cross guard must have a less of a risk of that. Unwieldy 2 if you're going to give it that, so those with 2 left feet have problems but everyone else is ok.

I must admit the Vicious quality is a good way to handle the extra options a character has when wielding a cross guard.

Nobody thinks it'd be unwieldy? Really?

After all those pre-TFA videos where lots of people demonstrated how a crossguard could hurt the user?

Actually, I saw a really good video where the guy (who was quite proficient with a broadsword) had dipped the cross guard into white paint, so that anytime the cross guard touched his arms, it'd be very obvious.

After several minutes... there wasn't a spec of white on his arms or wrists.

So an energy crossguard is only a problem if the wielder is an incompetent swordsman. Something that Kylo Ren certain was not.